Somewhere near the beginning of 1990, Tommy Vance broadcast a live show by The Quireboys as part of his Friday Night Rock Show on Radio 1. The live set – recorded at Wembley Arena when the still relatively new band opened for the legendary Aerosmith on their ‘Pump’ tour in 1989 – presented the boys in great shape. Numbers like ‘Misled’ and ‘Man On The Loose’ captured a Faces-obsessed swagger in a way that few bands had managed since 1975; ‘Seven O’Clock’ – already known and loved by Vance’s devoted listeners – and the soon to be released as a single ‘Hey You’ showed the crowd pleasing power Spike and the boys already had from the off, whilst the country strains of ‘Sweet Mary Ann’ suggested the Quireboys had the potential to stretch out if required. Although short, this live show was, and remains, a great document of the band firing on all six.
Monthly Archives: March 2025
SILVER DOLLAR ROOM – Gilded Echoes: The Acoustic Sessions
With their debut release ‘Gilded Echoes’, Scotland’s Silver Dollar Room delivered one of the finest albums of 2024. Its mix of hard rock and grunge drew from classic sources, including Smashing Pumpkins (with better vocals) and Bush (but with better songs), creating something that sometimes felt a little nostalgic but still relevant in the present.
REAL GONE GOES OUT: Terrorvision – Dreamland Ballroom, Margate, Kent 21/3/2025
It’s 9pm on a Friday night. Terrorvision have just arrived on stage in the small Ballroom at the Dreamland venue. Surprisingly, for a name band pitching themselves at a middle aged audience, many of whom in the local area are affluent and often up for a night out, it isn’t a sell out. The venue is approximately half full, bringing back memories of Carter USM man Jim Bob’s undersold show in the same location in April 2024.
Unlike Jim, though, the lads aren’t sulking about it. Halfway through opening number ‘Discoteque Wreck’ – which attacks with immediacy, driven by a chunky guitar and a bass heavy sound – Tony Wright appears to be thrilled to be on stage. Sporting a very retro, blue-grey checked suit which looks a bit like one of Noddy Holder’s cast offs, he’s centre stage with a beaming grin, dancing manically. The sound is rough, but the energy coming from the band and into the audience is utterly immense. It’s obvious that this is the perfect opener for this fairly intimate show, and midway through the second number, it’s also clear that Wright’s dance wasn’t actually contrived to illustrate the narrative behind the previous song. He’s still lurching about like a man possessed, while the rest of Terrorvision crank out some hard edged riffs.
MAGANA – Bad News EP
Released during the first quarter of 2024, Magana’s ‘Break Free’ single shared some very interesting musical ideas. Billed as “witchy rock”, the track managed to convey a hard edge, but retain a sense of the atmospheric. With the aid of droning keys and percussive rhythms, the performance conveyed a spooky vibe, but was also unafraid to take detours into harder edged sounds. Like a strange hybrid of 90s goth, classic Cocteau Twins and a deep dive into middle period Lush, it wasn’t for everyone, but for those with a love of various 90s and 00’s alternative sounds, it brought a welcome new slant to genre-specific sounds that often felt familiar.
Watch: Modern Evils share new video for ‘Gitzlaff Lover’
Over the years, Swindon has become famous for its associations with the brilliant XTC, the legendary Justin Hayward, and pop singer turned actress Billie Piper. It also spawned one of the UK’s heaviest bands in recent years – Heriot, who seemed to take forever to record their debut full length – and 90s dance act Meat Beat Manifesto, but you’d be hard pressed to consider the town a Mecca for music fans.
Here’s another Swindon based band worth keeping an eye on. Relative newcomers Modern Evils released a couple of strong singles in 2024, but, on the basis of their first release for 2025, they’re set to up their game this year.